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GOP senator vows to block nominees

WASHINGTON — Senator Lindsey Graham threatened Monday to hold up all nominations for federal government positions until survivors of last year’s deadly attack on the diplomatic post in Libya appear before Congress.

‘‘Where are the #Benghazi survivors?’’ the South Carolina Republican said on his official Twitter account. ‘‘I’m going to block every appointment in the US Senate until they are made available to Congress.’’

Prominent nominations announced by President Obama and awaiting Senate confirmation include Janet Yellen for chair of the Federal Reserve and Jeh Johnson for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

There have been a number of Capitol Hill hearings on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. There was also a review chaired by former ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. But Graham is among lawmakers dissatisfied with information they have received and he has threatened previous nominations over the issue.

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‘‘The administration has made extraordinary efforts to work with seven. . . different congressional committees investigating what happened before, during and after the Benghazi attacks,’’ White House spokesman Jay Carney said. ‘‘That includes testifying at 13 congressional hearings, participating in 40 staff briefings and providing over 25,000 pages of documents.’’

Associated Press